Has to be Hopkins. He is going to get a ton of field time, and will see easier matchups than most rookie WRs thanks to AJ (and the Texans' offense in general).

Good points.

I'll admit I'm looking at what happened with Martin, Jean, & Posey to gauge what we might see with Hopkins. But with Kevin Walter gone, DeAndre will be entrenched as the #2 WR, giving him more time to gain Schaub's trust & Schaub would know he has no choice.

I thought Schaub was clicking with Posey at the end of the season there. Hopefully he can get there with DeAndre sooner....... say midseason.

Picked Hopkins, but I think it'll,be neck and neck between him and Swearinger. Both will see lots of OR and I think both will do we'll despite difficult schemes to adjust to. I picked Hopkins because of the impact he can have if he consistently catches the ball and adds a legit second outside threat.

I do think overall this could be Smith's best draft haul. The past two years have been real good top to bottom.

I had a hard time picking between Nuk, and Swearinger. From what I've been reading and seeing about Nuk, I went with him him. I do think that Swearinger, and Travardo Williams will surprise Texans fans. The one player I'm worried about is Sonic Sam, I just have a feeling he will not live up to expectations his first season.

Crappy drafts are built on lining up needs and forcing them onto the available personnel.

Yep that's what I'm saying here, the Texans not only forced a position they also reached for a player at that same position.
And for those who think that the Texans had any intention of taking Quessenberry at the start of the Draft, that doesn't add up as they passed on him on their Board in the third (2 picks), fourth, and fifth rounds.
BTW, the San Jose OT had no problems with his length which many claimed was a reason for him not going higher: that's an arm length of almost 34 " and a wing-span of 81 ".
• David Quessenberry
San Jose St.
6'5
29433⅞
10½81⅛http://www.draftcountdown.com/featur...s/Weigh-In.php

Yep that's what I'm saying here, the Texans not only forced a position they also reached for a player at that same position.
And for those who think that the Texans had any intention of taking Quessenberry at the start of the Draft, that doesn't add up as they passed on him on their Board in the third (2 picks), fourth, and fifth rounds.

The way teams construct and work their boards is very different than just creating a list of all the prospects available and then picking the top of their list whenever their pick comes along.

Teams go through and eliminate prospects based on a variety of criteria: scheme, team needs, etc. A team's list of players may only be 80-90 players long. And then they put a round grade on the prospects that are left based on where they think they can get that guy.

Once a team fills a team need, they usually eliminate those positions from their boards (unless they want to draft some competition or depth.)

So the way I believe it worked with Quessenberry was that they drafted Brennan Williams to compete with Newton and Harris for the RT spot. The way they had crafted their board, Quessenberry would have been a backup pick at that spot.

A couple of rounds go by and instead of drafting one of the guys they had targeted in that round, they drafted Quessenberry because they felt he was too good of a value to pass up. They hadn't expected for him to fall that far.

I'm basing my opinion on what Smithiak said after the draft in regards to Quessenberry.

Quote:

Kubiak said the Texans expected Quessenberry to be drafted shortly after Williams went in the third round. When he was still there in the sixth, general manager Rick Smith decided to trade up eight spots to get him.

There were other quotes floating around the time of the draft with Smithiak saying the same sort of thing. They chose Brennan Williams but they had Quessenberry rated at about the same spot in the draft. When he was still available. They traded up a couple of spots to make sure they got him.

I might be the biggest Swearinger fan on the board, but Hopkins is going to have the most impact.

He's going to eat one on one coverage alive. He's going to make plays after the catch. He's going to make plays with DB's all over him. Just the nature of our offense combined with his ability...He's going to beast out this year...

Except that he'll be playing against NFL defenses which is something he's never done before. Getting open may not be as easy as we think.... & unless he & Schaub are really clicking, "open" may be more tightly defined for a good part of the season.

Isn't Hopkins practicing against one of the best set of DBs in the NFL EVERY DAY? Are you saying our DBs suck compared to the rest of the league? Are you saying the knowledge A.J. et al. are passing along to him about what to expect won't take? Are you saying Hopkins sucks?

Hopkins is my pick.

And whichever guy we pick to to be the #3 RB - looks like D.Johnson right now - is my dark horse pick because I have little faith that Tate will be healthy all year. That guy will get more snaps than anyone currently expects; just like Forsett did last year

Isn't Hopkins practicing against one of the best set of DBs in the NFL EVERY DAY? Are you saying our DBs suck compared to the rest of the league? Are you saying the knowledge A.J. et al. are passing along to him about what to expect won't take? Are you saying Hopkins sucks?

I'm just saying, some guys look great in practice. Some guys play great when there's nothing on the line, when no one is taking score. Once games start, & a player doesn't get open on one play, doesn't make the catch on the second play, doesn't keep his feet in bounds on the next, or doesn't make his block... some guys are good with losing more times than not. The keep their heads, keep chopping wood, & eventually get better (Kareem). Some kids let it pile up, and eat away at them, and let the distractions get in the way of their growth (Okoye maybe??). Some guys try to be something they're not & never become anything..... (David Carr)

I'm hoping for the best for DeAndre, but there's a bunch of different ways this can go. Alls I'm saying is we don't know.

The easy answer would be Hopkins .... But Im not going to take the easy way out here.

The guy who will have the biggest impact will be Swearinger. His taking over of the nickel safety spot that we have seen Glover Quin play the past couple seasons is going to be big , probably bigger in the grand scheme of the game than what Hopkins adds offensively.

Hopkins may have more snaps and some good stats ... but that nickel Safety plays a huge role in the success of this defense.

I'm just saying, some guys look great in practice. Some guys play great when there's nothing on the line, when no one is taking score. Once games start, & a player doesn't get open on one play, doesn't make the catch on the second play, doesn't keep his feet in bounds on the next, or doesn't make his block... some guys are good with losing more times than not. The keep their heads, keep chopping wood, & eventually get better (Kareem). Some kids let it pile up, and eat away at them, and let the distractions get in the way of their growth (Okoye maybe??). Some guys try to be something they're not & never become anything..... (David Carr)

I'm hoping for the best for DeAndre, but there's a bunch of different ways this can go. Alls I'm saying is we don't know.

TK, you slayed me with this one. Where the hell did you get this? All Kubiak, AJ and Schaub can do is sing his praises as well as every reporter I've read that's attending training camp.

I agree that no one can tell the future but I can tell you one thing: Nuk is going to be a baller.

First, I want to give credit for a great thread. Not only to the OP, but to all the contributors......great stuff!!

I'm going with Hopkins because it'll be easier to see, but I think Hopkins and Swearinger are 1A/1B.

Hopkins: will explode. What he gives you that Kevin Walter never could (and I am a huge KW believer) is a target you can hit repeatedly. You had to work KW into availability, if you tried him 2-3 times in a row someone would jump his route. Hopkins seems to rise above the most pressure......the LSU game was unbelievable!

Swearinger: I agree about the Glover Quin comparison, he is going to eat that slot up!!!

__________________
Failure is the opportunity to begin again, more intelligently. --Henry Ford

there's a bunch of different ways this can go. Alls I'm saying is we don't know.

This is one reason why I threw in the 3rd string RB - it's still looking like D.J. right now - as my darkhorse. There's usually someone that comes out of nowhere that has a larger-than-expected impact. That Willie Jefferson cat looks intriguing also. Let's see what he does in preseason though...

This is one reason why I threw in the 3rd string RB - it's still looking like D.J. right now - as my darkhorse. There's usually someone that comes out of nowhere that has a larger-than-expected impact. That Willie Jefferson cat looks intriguing also. Let's see what he does in preseason though...

Dang TK, do you realize how BA that would be? I know Kubiak is really high on him per his endorsement to the press after the draft and during OTAs and TC. I read somewhere right after the draft that he was Gary's pick because he was really impressed by his explosiveness in and out of his cuts and reports to date indicate he has pretty good hands as well. If he can learn to be consistent he could prove to be a real steal.

Don't know if he ever will, but neither does anyone else. Guess this will enlighten us all as to Gary's talent evaluation skills.